You can enter as many tournaments as you have tokens for, but each tournament can only be entered once.This rule matters since once a tournament is filled, a new one of the same type will enter signups.

The first three phases are mostly on small-to-medium maps. Consequently all games in those phases will be 5-player. The fourth and final phase is on the much larger NYC map, and will feature 7-player games.

1. Prize warfareIt is generally accepted that nations in wartime have a right to seize and pillage enemy supplies, and this right extends to neutral vessels that are transporting goods to enemy nations. Nonetheless, international law has attempted to put limitations on this right. During the colonial wars between Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, and Holland, governments issued Letters of Marque to sea captains, allowing them to pillage enemy ships in the name of the crown. This led to the golden age of piracy and the legendary careers of men such as Captain Morgan, Captain Kidd, Blackbeard and Black Bart. Conversely, the same time period also saw the increasing codification of international law, including the laws of the sea. The work of Hugo Grotius led to increasing agreement on the idea that even in war, there ought to be rules, and nations are but elements in the community of man. The American Revolution resulted in an unprecedented number of legal proceedings surrounding the capture of enemy vessels, which turned the preceding "age of piracy" into an "age of litigation."

In Phase 1 of the tournament, we will mark the evolution of prize warfare. First, as all maritime law originates with the Greeks, one game on Ancient Greece. Then, to celebrate the golden age of piracy, one game each on Age of Merchants and Jamaica. Then, to honour the contributions of Grotius, one game each on Netherlands and Flanders 1302. Finally, to note the influence of the American Revolution, a game on 13 Colonies.

2. The blockadesAt the outbreak of WWI, both Britain and Germany declared blockades against each other. However, the British Navy was significantly more powerful and had bases around the world, whereas the German Fleet was smaller, and most of its overseas bases were lost early on. The British blockade against Germany was therefore highly successful, while the German blockade against Britain was mostly a failure.

The obvious counter to the British supremacy on the surface was to go below the surface and build submarines. However, the rules of prize warfare were problematic for a submarine. Some of the generally-accepted principles of prize warfare were: no sneak attacks, announcing one's intention to seize or sink a ship before attacking, giving the crew the option to abandon ship rather than fight, and rescuing the survivors of any sinkings. From a submarine's point of view, sneak attacks were mandatory. Submarines were both less powerful and much slower than surface ships -- announcing their presence before attacking would be throwing away the only advantage they had. Furthermore, there is little extra space on a submarine. Rescuing survivors was completely out of the question. All this was well and good when submarines were used against warships and other purely military targets, but when they were used against merchant ships and ocean liners there was no way to avoid breaking the laws of the sea.

For a while the Germans attempted to follow the rules of prize warfare, but soon they found they could not realistically attempt to interrupt Britain's supply lines without throwing the rules out the window. This new policy is now known as "unrestricted submarine warfare."

In response to the British declaration in November 1914 that the entire North Sea was now a war zone, on 4 February 1915 Admiral Hugo von Pohl, commander of the German High Seas Fleet, published a warning in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger (Imperial German Gazette):

(1) The waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole of the English Channel, are hereby declared to be a War Zone. From February 18 onwards every enemy merchant vessel encountered in this zone will be destroyed, nor will it always be possible to avert the danger thereby threatened to the crew and passengers.

(2) Neutral vessels also will run a risk in the War Zone, because in view of the hazards of sea warfare and the British authorization of January 31 of the misuse of neutral flags, it may not always be possible to prevent attacks on enemy ships from harming neutral ships.

(3) Navigation to the north of the Shetlands, in the eastern parts of the North Sea and through a zone at least thirty nautical miles wide along the Dutch coast is not exposed to danger.

In Phase 2 of the tournament we will circumscribe the "war zone" of the map above: one game each on England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Benelux, and France.

3. Outrage growsThe German government was aware that unrestricted submarine warfare would turn public opinion against them, especially in neutral countries like the United States. This concern proved well-founded. American outrage began with the very first American civilian killed in a U-Boat attack, Leon Thrasher aboard the SS Falaba. It grew with the sinking of the Harpalyce, a relief ship containing American foodstuffs that had been collected for the starving Belgian civilians caught in the conflict. The greatest and most famous incident was the sinking of the Lusitania. The Lusitania was a legitimate target, carrying substantial quantities of military ordnance to Britain.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_RMS_Lusitania#Contraband_and_second_explosion

The cargo included 4,200,000 rounds of Remington .303 rifle/machine-gun cartridges, 1,250 cases of empty 3-inch (76 mm) fragmentation shell casings and eighteen cases of percussion fuses,[57][2][3] all of which were listed on the ship's two-page manifest, filed with US Customs after she departed New York on 1 May.

Nonetheless, the loss of almost 1200 civilian lives shocked the people of neutral nations, especially the United States. 128 of the dead were American citizens, many of them prominent businessmen or socialites. Public outrage after the sinking was almost enough to lead to an American declaration of war, but Wilson urged restraint. An exchange of diplomatic messages followed. U.S. entry into the war was averted for the moment, but this was a major milestone on the way to that entry. Relations were stabilized but not improved.By supplement to The Sphere magazine [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Three more Americans were killed when U-24 sank the liner SS Arabic. After this concerns about American entry into the war were so strong that the German Chancellor forced the Navy to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare.

In Phase 3 of the tournament we play one game on the Ireland map (many of the notable sinkings took place near the Irish coast), one game on Portugal (Lusitania is named after the old Roman province which included what is now Portugal), one game on Middle East (to honour the SS Arabic), one game on USA New England (departure points of most of these ships), one game on Benelux (the Harpalyce destination) and finally one game on High Seas.

After Phase 3 we cut the field to seven finalists and reset the scores.

4. FinalsThe finals will be played on the NYC map, for two reasons. First, as the world's busiest port, New York was the place from where many of the sunken ships departed. Second, as the centre of American publishing and media, New York was where American (and to some degree world) public opinion was forged.

On January 9th, General Maude launched an attack on heavily fortified Turkish positions at the Khadairi Bend of the TIgris River. It was a good opportunity for the new commander to get familiar with his troops and vice-versa. One interesting feature of the battle was that Maude's troops dug secret tunnels to within small-arms shooting distance of the Turkish line. Tunneling was by this point very common on the Western Front, but it had not previously been seen in the Mesopotamian Campaign. The battle also featured a very heavy artillery barrage before he main assault, another taste of the Western Front.

The battle raged for three weeks, until the last fort was taken on January 29th.

20 players start

Tournament Phase 1: The British dug secret tunnels toward the Turkish forts.Four games, two each on Seige and Draknor.5-player Standard, Flat Rate, Fog, and Trench.

14 players advance

Tournament Phase 2: A heavy artillery barrage opened the main attackFour games, two each on Waterloo and Stalingrad.7-player Standard, Nuclear, Fog, and Trench.

6 players advance

Tournament Phase 3: For three weeks the battle ragedFour games, one each on Third Crusade, Three Kingdoms of China, Three Kingdoms of Korea, and Triple Alliance.6-player Terminator, Escalating, Fog, No Trench, and Parachute.

---Battle(Naval) of Nahr-al-Kalek...Tournament...-------------------Monday...Feb.26th,1917...-------

----------1/3..............................18 Player Tournament...----

------------Wayward Day's Diary: Feb. 26th, 1917...---------------------------The Battle(Naval) of Nahr-al-Kalek took place just a few days after The British recaptured the city of Kut from the Ottoman Empire. Captain Henry Graham Sherbrooke was to attack fleeing Turkish troops from their defeat at Kut. As they retreated along the banks of the Tigris river. But Cpt. Sherbrooke over shot his own army and ended up 30 kilometers down river. His 3 British gunboats soon came under attack near Nahr-al-Kalek...4 gunboats of the Turkish navy fired away. Including a British gunboat called THE FIREFLY, which the Turks captured earlier. Cpt. Sherbrooke's gunboat THE TARANTULA along with the Mantis and the Moth, returned fire. Destroying the 3 built Turkish boats, and recaptured the British gunboat THE FIREFLY. On the British fleet's way back to Kut, the fleet captured 700 Turkish soldiers fleeing from their defeat at Kut along the Tigris river's shoreline. A TOTAL BRITISH VICTORY.

Round 1)18 players start and 12 move on. Maps: Egypt:lower, Land and Sea, High Seas: 3,1-vs-1 games on each map.,Standard,Auto,Sequential,Escalating,Unlimited,20 rounds.

World 2.1 I had already intended to add to the list during Worldwide Warfare Week in April, to denote the fact that this was a worldwide conflict.

Britain and Germany were the ubiquitous combatants, both involved in some way in every single theatre of the war, so I will try to always have a British map and a German map. Classic Cities: London and Germany get the nod this time, because they're smaller maps and a lot of the others on the list are larger maps. This means no disrespect to any of the other British and German maps; they will all get a turn at some point.

1915 was definitely the year of Gallipolli, from February to December. After the end of the year, we really won't have any good excuse to use Gallipoli any more, so may as well use it while we can.

Battle for Iraq! -- a lot of interesting stuff was happening on the Mesopotamian front. Tiny battles, with participants in four digits instead of six digits like the European battles, but tactically interesting. Since we've already used Middle East recently, I'll give the nod to B for I. Don't worry about the fact that a lot of the issues are 100 years into the future. Our next-best Mideast map is Gilgamesh, which takes us 4000 years into the past!

Italy. Besides Gallipoli, the summer of 1915 saw the entry of Italy into the war.

Rail Europe. Rail dominated logistic concerns. A lot of the nations involved were landlocked, so could not be supplied by sea, and motorized road transport was only beginning to come into play. Rail definitely was number 1.

Poison Rome. For several reasons. The war was definitely a family war, as the closely related Royal Families of Russia, Germany, Britain, and Greece all held to somewhat different agendas and all failed to use their family connection to broker an early peace. Assassination, prominent in Poison Rome, had an impact.

EDIT:In 1915, much is happening in the south, as campaigns in Africa and the Middle East heat up. The big operation of the year, however, is the Dardanelles-Gallipoli operation. It's time to update our token-dropping maps accordingly. On February 19th, on the 100th anniversary of the initial naval bombardment of the Gallipoli forts, we will add a new group of maps to the token-dropping list:Gallipoli (beta) mapWWI OttomanMiddle EastEuropaDark ContinentAfrica IIAustraliaNew Zealand

The current list, (Europe1914, Transsib1914, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Unification Germany, England, France1789, and Benelux) will remain active for now and continue dropping tokens for another month, until March 19th.

There are 4 types of tokens. Right now only one category is being issued. They don't have a "score", they are just used to enter into the autotournaments. The autotournaments award medals to the winners. Right now, the medals are given a score of 1. Highest score wins (in 4 years). There will most likely be an "after a year" prize.

The Quarterly Green: Will be given to the player at the top of the scoreboard at the end of each quarter. However, the same player can only get it once per year. Thus, if the player on the top of the scoreboard already got one within the last four quarters, it will go to the 2nd place player. If that player already got one in the last four quarters, it will go to the third place player and so on.

The Quarterly Blue: Will be a "most-improved" star. We'll need a snapshot of the scoreboard at the end of each quarter. The player who moves up the most spaces on the scoreboard will win the Blue. If multiple players all jumped the same number of spaces, the one who began at the highest point in the previous quarter will get the star.

Both the Quarterly Green and the Quarterly Blue will come with a GA medal to commemorate the triumph.

5. The description in the autotourney box is a short description, because of space limitations. For more details, you can visit the List of Current and Upcoming Tournaments post, which will usually have a more thorough discussion of the tourney. For older tourneys, you can look for the appropriate archive in the List of Previous Tournaments

Q: I came in 17th in a tournament that gives helmets for placing 18th or better. Why didn't I get a helmet?

A: You're reading the tournament description wrong. When the tournament description says that a helmet is given for 18th place or whatever, it only means 18th place. It does NOT mean all places up to and including 18th. This is a quasi-random participation bonus.

I have been asked again about the helmet prizes being given to players who end in various positions.

The current policy is this. Two helmets are given out in every tournament. One goes to the first-place player. The other is given to a player finishing in a randomly-chosen non-winning position.

The history of this is as follows. First, there was pamoa's suggestion to give participation ribbons of some kind to everyone who plays in one of these tournaments. For several reasons, I decided against that. I did, however, start randomly choosing one non-winning position per tournament to get a helmet as a kind of random bonus.

When the tournament description says that a helmet is given for 18th place or whatever, it only means 18th place. It does NOT mean all places up to and including 18th. This is a quasi-random participation bonus.

To get a Tank token, one has to play a game on Austro-Hungarian Empire,Balkan Peninsula,King Of The Mountains,Europe 1914 and hope it drops. The higher the # of players there is, the better drop rate you get!

Before you ask, they were briefly awarded for speed games on all maps.

You can access them from the Great War banner on your My Games page, or from the tournament tab at the top.

Silly Knig-it wrote:This sounds like fun.

But if I understand this correctly, the current games can only be played by speeders who happened to catch the tokens.

Would love to play some of these but I don't do speed games.

No, it's all games on the 4 maps listed. It is not speed games right now.

mathonwy wrote:This sounds hella fun but maybe a little too ambitious for the tools that are currently available?

4 years is a very long time and without an automated way to keep track of everything, it'll be near impossible to maintain everyone's interest that long (and that's includes the game coordinator's as well).

Think about it, you are telling a 4 year story using a forum and text and nothing else. I don't know about you but my attention span won't last that long and I don't care enough to keep on top of it which is what your ultimate goal should be if you're doing something like this.

If you're doing something this long,- you need an easy way of tracking what has gone on, what's is currently going on and what is coming up and a forum is not the way to do it as it's just too much typing and reading. You need a static page for players to go to that contains the schedule and record so far etc etc and you need this to make the players care about what's actually going.- you want a consistent group of players that goes from game 1 to game end. Just like a 4 year AD&D game, you want consistency. You want the same GM and the same core group of players. You want players to start knowing who each other are and you want players to be engaged into what's going on. If you don't, the game coordinator is going to find himself quickly losing interest FAST.

It just seems a little rushed and unplanned right now?

-Math

We have automated token, and tournament systems. I'm not sure what else I could use.

I don't think we want a consistent group or even if we could expect it. This is somewhat of a marathon, not a series of sprints. I doubt the community team will even be the same in 4 years

ooge wrote:And the winner 4 years from now is a player no longer on the website.

Just a stupid question about tokens. - Do you have to win one of the listed games to get a drop chance?

If you just have to play then can we get an idea of what the drop chance is. - I have 14 newly started games of the current types and so far no tokens. - So if its neccessary to play a hundred games to get 3 tokens, Im thinking that the tournaments will only be joined by the very lucky or the insanely active?